Lucas Bettoni

Following an investigation lasting several months, the Competition Authority (hereinafter the Authority) published an opinion on 17 November 2020 on the competitive situation on the Île de Beauté. The document begins with an in-depth diagnosis of economic concentration in four key sectors of the (...)

Facts. Six companies specialising in the sale of motor vehicles are part of a dealership network run by the subsidiary of the General Motors group importing new vehicles of the brand in France. As such, they benefit from a new vehicle distribution contract and also from an approved repairer (...)

Facts and procedure The Competition Authority has been seized by an audiovisual services broadcasting operator for practices committed by TDF, the leading competitor on this market, which could potentially constitute an abuse of a dominant position. By decision of June 6, 2016, the perpetrator (...)

While trade negotiations for the establishment of the 2021 agreements are already under way, the CEPC has posted a recommendation on its website which aims to "guide the professionals concerned in the possible difficulties of applying current contracts due to the health crisis and its (...)

The judgment under review is an opportunity to review both the contours of the fault committed at the time of a breach of a distribution agreement and the lawfulness of a refusal of approval to a candidate for entry into the network, issues which fuel a rather plethoric dispute (if the dispute (...)

Usually, the parties to a transaction submit their application for annulment of the act on the basis of the policy of defects of consent (Civil Code, arts. 1130 et seq.), or even on the absence of reciprocal concessions (see Civ. 1, 9 July 2003, No. 01-11963). To claim the nullity of a (...)

The impact of Orders n° 2020-306 of March 25, 2020 and n° 2020-427 of April 15, 2020 on business contracts In accordance with the authorization granted by Parliament in Emergency Act No. 2020-290 of 23 March 2020 to deal with the covid-19 epidemic, the Government adopted "deadline" Ordinance No. (...)

This Decision will mark a decisive turning point in the decision-making practice of the Competition Authority (the Authority) in two respects. Firstly, because the French competition police force is imposing the highest financial penalty ever imposed in a case (EUR 1.24 billion) and Apple alone (...)

As a sign of its importance, the judgment under review is not only intended to be published in the Bulletin, but also benefits from an enrichment of its motivation. This means that the concept of restriction of competition by object, which is at the heart of its solution, is the subject of (...)

The previous letter was an opportunity to report a judgment providing useful clarifications on the relationship between the quasi-salaried relationship discovered a posteriori by the social judge between the supplier and the manager of the company in charge of distributing the products and the (...)

It is rare for the Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation to hear disputes involving branch management. Since the recognition of the status gives rise to the application of social law, the social chamber is naturally competent to rule on the matter. However, it is up to the commercial (...)

The judgment under consideration examines under competition and contract law a practice which is particularly harmful to members of an exclusive dealership network: active sales by a neighbouring dealer in the territory reserved for them by the grantor. The operator of a garage offering (...)

The decision under consideration follows the reference made by the Court of Cassation in its important decision of 27 March 2019 on the selection of resellers in a selective distribution system (Com., 27 March 2019, No. 17-22083: published in the Bulletin; Lettre distr. April 2019, p. 1, nos (...)

Where the individual employment contract is the subject of an instrumentum, the most obvious way to identify the employer is to refer to this writing and read the names of the parties: one is the employer, the other the employee. This appearance may well correspond to reality, particularly when (...)

Over the past ten years or so, many distributors affiliated to the Yves Rocher network, when relations deteriorate, have asked the social judge to apply the protective provisions of the Labour Code by recognising the status of branch manager referred to in Articles L. 7321-1 et seq. C. trav. (...)

An independent distributor of consumer electronics products, in particular televisions, operates a physical point of sale and an online sales site. Since the 2000s, it has been marketing Samsung brand products, in particular "Elite" range flat screen televisions. Its relations with the French (...)

In 2013, a company with a food retail business will enter into a supply contract with a subsidiary of the Carrefour Group for a period of seven years, tacitly renewable for five-year periods. On the same date and for the same period, it enters into a brand contract with another Group (...)

After having observed the marketing at low prices on a website of some of its perfumes usually distributed by its selective distribution network, Coty France sued the operator of the site for unfair competition. At the outset, the supplier justifies having set up a selective distribution (...)

The question of whether, under the general law of obligations, a candidate for entry into a selective distribution network that meets the selection criteria set by its promoter enjoys a right to approval is the subject of debate in doctrine (see N. Ferrier, La liberté de sélectionner dans la (...)

Widely accepted in case-law and already appearing in special laws (not art. L. 330-3 C. com.), the reform of the law of contract has enshrined in the Civil Code an obligation of pre-contractual information (art. 1112-1). This consecration raises the question of the place to be accorded to this (...)

Litigation over the application of labour law within distribution networks is not about to dry up. Attracted by the profit prospects offered by the recognition of the status of "quasi-employee" (C. trav., art. L.7321-1 et seq.) and certainly encouraged by the generally welcoming judicial (...)

There is a wealth of news on the subject of non-employee management of food retail branches, with no less than five judgments recorded, including two from the High Court and promised to be published in the Bulletin. Opposing Casino against pairs of supermarket managers expressly subject to the (...)

The judgment under comment, delivered in connection with an exclusive concession network, will be of interest to the lover of contract law in that it deals with the question of whether a contract is to be classified as a contract of indefinite or definite duration. It is well known that, in (...)

In Title II of the Labour Code on branch managers, the doctrine focuses on the first chapter, entitled "general provisions" and applicable to branch managers in general, and rightly denounces the extensive application of this status (see "The status of branch managers", Chapter 1, "General (...)